American Greetings Reviews

Pros

Flexible hours
no micromanagement, to a point
pay is decent
some really sharp/talented co-workers
everyone is likable for the most part
great work/life balance
easy commute, as long as you live on the west side

Cons

- management is severely inconsistent in it's practices and attitude
- sometimes you will run across an extremely effective manager, and sometimes the polar opposite, it depends on who walks through the door that day
- impractical deadlines bordering on the impossible if you don't manage them yourself and possess the forethought to start work on something before it comes to managements attention
- there is very little information sharing between departments, no one plays for the same team at AG

Advice to Senior Management

- promote communication between departments and teams within departments
- recognize talent when you see it and work to cultivate that talent
- properly train your managers to manage, and be consistent about it
- recognize problem employees, work to correct their behavior, or fire them and replace them. There is way to much dead weight at American Greetings.

Pros

the people are awesome the pay is market driven and the products are something to be proud of

Cons

Management is out of touch, can only manage up and have not concept of how to treat people

Advice to Senior Management

Promote more women. Pay attention to the ideas below the manager level, get rid of some of the useless VPs and EDs and empower people to take risks; people are waiting to be laid off. Get in front of that.

Pros

learned alot of different skills

Cons

narrow minded vision and communication on gaols need to be stronger

Pros

Decent Pay
Good Benefits
Amount of vacation time and time off is great
Jobs are easy to learn and complete

Cons

Overtime is mandatory, but employees aren't informed of overtime until the last minute and never know when it will end.
Management is more concerned about the job than the people.
Management will modify rules for employees with higher seniority.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat everyone as equals. Be more flexible or rid the handbook of antiquated rules. Work ethic should mean more to the company than seniority dates.

Pros

The flexability. For the most part, you can pick and choose the day and time you go into an account as long as activities are completed by the deadline. Working independently. Minimal creative freedom. At times being asked to come into HQ for testing or studies is a nice change of pace.

Cons

Management was not able to offer any advice on advancement opportunities. Simply was told to check the website for openings, which has never listed jobs requiring merchandising experience or requiring less than a bachelors degree. There is very little to no salary increases. I've had one salary increase in 2 years and still under $8 an hour. Also, there's not possible way to increase hours to 30 or 40 hrs a week, ever. The week after a holiday may yield a 40 hr week if you have 5 or 6 stores to service, due to changeovers. The following week may only yield 10 hrs for all accounts. The schedule for the week is given 1 day before the beginning of the week, not ideal for planning purposes.

Advice to Senior Management

The responsibilities and accuracy required by a merchandiser to adhere to AG protocols and activity specifications does not even nearly commensurate the pay. Allow for mistakes, not meeting deadlines, going over hours, etc... OR increase pay! It gets annoying, to the point of being humorous, to hear Team Leads and Supervisors discussing where improvements need to be made to account metrics, but have no concrete answer on raises or career advancement. All this for a paycheck that can't even buy a week of groceries for a household of 4 people. Please take the hard work and accuracy of your merchandiser more seriously

Pros

Friendly work environment, people who care, great career opportunity

Cons

Too conservative in embracing change and risks involved with innovation

Advice to Senior Management

Boost creativity and innovation to win the century

Pros

Work on your own. See results of your efforts! Good people to work for!

Cons

Can be overwhelming; need to learn to manage your time and you'll be fine.

Pros

compensation is fair, facilites are okay.

Cons

good old boy environment. very incompetent management. makes money in spite of themselves.

Advice to Senior Management

stick with technical people to run operations.

Pros

- The customers, especially. If you were working while a customer was looking for a card, and they started talking to you, it was always something different. I loved talking to the customers.

- The flexibility of the schedules. You could go to work any time of day, just as long as you got things done.

- Great for retired people/stay at home parents looking for a little cash on the side.

Cons

- Not good for someone who really needs to pay bills.

- Around holidays like Christmas, things pick up hour wise. But the rest of the year, the hours were VERY low. Getting paid minimum wage, I serviced three stores, once a week most of the time, only getting two-three hours at most in, earning 15$-20$. Yeah, ridiculous.

- The scanners they give us to scan in shipments/order product. Very out of date (I'm talking 1990s technology). Very bulky, I must have dropped mine more than five times, breaking things off and then super gluing it back on.

- No reimbursement on the gas mileage you use. You have to use your own vehicle to go to your stores. And my scrimpy paychecks would all go to gas. Yay.

- No benefits

- No advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Get better technology for the scanners and pay your merchandisers what they deserve because WE are the ones who make AG what they are.

Pros

work life balance is good

Cons

limits on advancement in job